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ssc2017-16a 11.01.17 Polluted White DwarfThis artist's concept shows an exoplanet and debris disk orbiting a polluted white dwarf. view image |
ssc2017-11a 10.04.17 Dusty Ring Around Boyajians StarThis illustration depicts a hypothetical uneven ring of dust orbitingKIC 8462852, also known as Boyajians Star or Tab... view image |
sig16-011b 06.14.16 Dimming of FU Orionis (Fainter Phase Artist's Concept)The brightness of outbursting star FU Orionis has been slowly fading since its initial flare-up in 1936. Researchers ... view image |
sig16-011 06.14.16 Dimming of FU Orionis (Artist's Concept)The brightness of outbursting star FU Orionis has been slowly fading since its initial flare-up in 1936. Researchers ... view image |
sig16-011a 06.14.16 Dimming of FU Orionis (Brighter Phase Artist's Concept)The brightness of outbursting star FU Orionis has been slowly fading since its initial flare-up in 1936. Researchers ... view image |
ssc2014-06b 08.28.14 Witnessing a Planetary WreckageAstronomers were surprised to see these data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope in January 2013, showing a huge erup... view image |
ssc2014-06a 08.28.14 Building Planets Through CollisionsPlanets, including those like our own Earth, form from epic collisions between asteroids and even bigger bodies, call... view image |
sig14-005 03.06.14 Loops of Gas and Dust Rise from Planetary DisksMagnetic loops carry gas and dust above disks of planet-forming material circling stars, as shown in this artist's co... view image |
sig13-006 07.31.13 Dusty Hula Hoop Rings 'Blinking' Stellar DuoIn this artist's impression, a disk of dusty material leftover from star formation girds two young stars like a hula ... view image |
ssc2013-02a 01.08.13 Rocky Ring of Debris Around VegaThis artist's concept illustrates an asteroid belt around the bright star Vega. view image |
ssc2011-08a 10.19.11 It's Raining CometsThis artist's conception illustrates a storm of comets around a star near our own, called Eta Corvi. view image |
ssc2011-06b 05.26.11 Finding Forsterite Around a Developing StarUsing NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers have, for the first time, found signatures of silicate crystals aro... view image |
ssc2011-06c 05.26.11 Cosmic Fountain of Crystal RainThis graphic illustrates a stellar fountain of crystal rain, beginning with a Spitzer picture of the star in question... view image |
sig10-022 10.27.10 Buckyballs in SpaceNASAs Spitzer Space Telescope has detected buckyballs - intriguing, miniature-soccer-ball-shaped molecules - in inter... view image |
ssc2010-07b 08.23.10 Circle of Planetary AshesThis artist's concept illustrates a tight pair of stars and a surrounding disk of dust -- most likely the shattered r... view image |
ssc2010-07a 08.23.10 Spectral Signatures of Planetary DoomThis plot of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that a dusty planetary smashup probably occur... view image |
ssc2010-07c 08.23.10 Before the SmashupThis artist's concept illustrates an imminent planetary collision around a pair of double stars. NASA's Spitzer Space... view image |
ssc2010-06b 07.22.10 Space BallsNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has at last found buckyballs in space, as illustrated by this artist's conception show... view image |
sig10-012 07.14.10 A Disk Around a Massive Baby StarAstronomers have obtained the first clear look at a dusty disk closely encircling a massive baby star, thought to lo... view image |
ssc2010-03a 03.17.10 How to Spot a Primitive Black HoleThese two data plots from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope show a primitive supermassive black hole (top) compared to a... view image |
ssc2010-03b 03.17.10 Prehistoric Black HoleThis artist's conception illustrates one of the most primitive supermassive black holes known (central black dot) at ... view image |
ssc2010-01b 01.05.10 Mystery of the Fading StarAstronomers have found a likely solution to a centuries-old riddle of the night sky. Every 27 years, a bright star ca... view image |
ssc2010-01a 01.05.10 Epsilon Aurigae Puzzle Pieces Snap Into PlaceThis graph of data from multiple telescopes shows the distribution of light from a pair of stars known as Epsilon Aur... view image |
ssc2009-21b 11.23.09 Dusty Beginnings of a StarThis artist's rendering gives us a glimpse into a cosmic nursery as a star is born from the dark, swirling dust and g... view image |
ssc2009-18a 09.23.09 Lump of Planetary StuffThis artist's conception shows a lump of material in a swirling, planet-forming disk. view image |
ssc2009-16a 08.10.09 Planetary Demolition DerbyThis artist's animation shows a celestial body about the size of our moon slamming at great speed into a body the siz... view image |
ssc2009-16b 08.10.09 Signs of Blasted RockThis spectrum, or plot of infrared data, from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope reveals the presence of vaporized and me... view image |
ssc2009-13b 06.10.09 Telltale Signs of Stellar YouthThese data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope reveal a newborn star at the center of our Milky Way. Our galaxy's cor... view image |
ssc2009-11a 05.13.09 Seeing Crystals Form Around a Young StarAstronomers have had a rare opportunity to witness the creation of silicate crystals around a young star, as seen in ... view image |
ssc2009-11b 05.13.09 Silicate Crystal Formation in the Disk of an Erupting StarThis artist's concept illustrates how silicate crystals like those found in comets can be created by an outburst from... view image |
sig09-002 04.20.09 Emission from the White Dwarf System GD 16This chart shows the brightness and wavelength of the radiation coming from white dwarf GD 16 and its associated disk... view image |
ssc2009-09a 04.07.09 Cool Stars May Have Different Prebiotic Chemical MixNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope detected a prebiotic, or potentially life-forming, molecule called hydrogen cyanide (H... view image |
ssc2009-09b 04.07.09 Chemical Soups Around Cool StarsThis artist's conception shows a young, hypothetical planet around a cool star. A soupy mix of potentially life-formi... view image |
ssc2009-01b 01.05.09 Asteroid 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead StarNASA's Spitzer Space Telescope set its infrared eyes upon the dusty remains of shredded asteroids around several dead... view image |
ssc2008-20a 11.11.08 Quartz-like Crystals Found in Planetary DisksThis artists concept of a young star and its planet forming disk shows tiny quartz like crystals detected by the Spit... view image |
ssc2008-19a 10.27.08 Epsilon Eridani: Double the RubbleThis artist's conception shows the closest known planetary system to our own, called Epsilon Eridani. Observations fr... view image |
ssc2008-19b 10.27.08 Young Solar System in the MakingThis artist's diagram compares the Epsilon Eridani system to our own solar system. The two systems are structured sim... view image |
ssc2008-06a 03.13.08 A Young Stellar Disk around AA TauriThis plot of infrared data shows the signatures of water vapor and simple organic molecules in the disk of gas and du... view image |
ssc2008-06b 03.13.08 Water Vapor in the Young Planetary Disk of AS 205NThis plot of infrared data shows the strong signature of water vapor in the disk of gas and dust surrounding a young ... view image |
sig08-002 01.09.08 Accretion Disk Around Binary Star System WZ SgeAn artist's concept of the accretion disk around the binary star system WZ Sge. Using data from Kitt Peak National Ob... view image |
sig07-023 11.28.07 Planets Forming Around a Sun-like StarThis is an artist's rendition of the one-million-year-old star system called UX Tau A, located approximately 450 ligh... view image |
sig07-019 10.03.07 Birth of an Earth-like PlanetThis artist's conception shows a binary-star, or two-star, system, called HD 113766, where astronomers suspect a rock... view image |
ssc2007-14d 08.29.07 Planet-Forming Disk Around a Baby StarThis artist's concept shows a young star surrounded by a dusty protoplanetary disk. This disk contains the raw materi... view image |
ssc2007-14c 08.29.07 Steamy Solar SystemThis diagram illustrates the earliest journeys of water in a young, forming star system. view image |
ssc2007-08c 04.18.07 Evaporating Protoplanetary DiskYoung, cooler stars like our sun can form in the danger zones around scorching hot stars, called O-stars. The closer ... view image |
ssc2007-05a 03.27.07 Where Planets Take up ResidenceThis diagram illustrates that mature planetary systems like our own might be more common around twin, or binary, star... view image |
ssc2007-05b 03.27.07 Solar System with Snug SunsThis artist's concept depicts a faraway solar system like our own except for one big difference. Planets and asteroi... view image |
sig07-003 01.09.07 Luminous Blue Variable HD168625: Destined To Be a Supernova?A Luminous Blue Variable star, HD168625, is surrounded by a bipolar nebula that is similar to the one around SN1987A.... view image |
sig07-001 01.09.07 Forecasting Weather on Distant WorldsAn artist's concept shows a gas-giant planet orbiting very close to its parent star, creating searingly hot condition... view image |
sig06-022 09.18.06 Brown Dwarf CompanionThis is an artist's concept of the star HD 3651 as it is orbited by a close-in Saturn-mass planetary companion and th... view image |
ssc2006-15a 07.24.06 Stars Can't Spin Out of ControlThis artist's concept shows a dusty planet-forming disk in orbit around a whirling young star. NASA's Spitzer Space T... view image |
sig06-014 05.22.06 Stellar JetsThis artist concept illustrates jets of material shooting out from the neutron star in the interacting binary system ... view image |
ssc2006-10b 04.05.06 Stellar Rubble May Be Planetary Building BlocksThis artist's concept depicts a type of dead star called a pulsar and the surrounding disk of rubble discovered by NA... view image |
ssc2006-10a 04.05.06 Circle of AshesThis plot tells astronomers that a pulsar, the remnant of a stellar explosion, is surrounded by a disk of its own ash... view image |
ssc2006-10c 04.05.06 Extreme PlanetsThis artist's concept depicts a planetary system discovered by Aleksander Wolszczan in 1992 around a pulsar. view image |
ssc2006-05a 02.08.06 Little Dust Grains in Giant Stellar DisksThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the composition of a monstrous disk of what may be plane... view image |
ssc2006-05b 02.08.06 Supersized DiskThis illustration compares the size of a gargantuan star and its surrounding dusty disk (top) to that of our solar sy... view image |
ssc2006-04b 01.11.06 Comet 'Bites the Dust' Around Dead StarThis artist's concept illustrates a comet being torn to shreds around a white dwarf called G29-38. NASA's Spitzer Spa... view image |
sig06-001 01.10.06 Circumbinary DiskThis artist concept shows a debris disk in a cataclysmic variable system which consists of a highly magnetic white dw... view image |
ssc2005-26a 12.20.05 Life's Starting Materials Found in Dusty DiskThis graph, or spectrum, from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope tells astronomers that some of the most basic ingredient... view image |
ssc2005-26b 12.20.05 Portrait of Our Dusty PastThis artist's concept illustrates a solar system that is a much younger version of our own. Dusty disks, like the one... view image |
sig05-026 12.14.05 The Invisible DiskAstronomers can detect the presence of disks of dust orbiting distant stars by measuring how the combined light from ... view image |
sig05-027 12.14.05 Belt of DustA narrow asteroid belt filled with rocks and dusty debris, orbits a star similar to our own Sun when it was approxima... view image |
sig05-022 11.29.05 Itsy Bitsy Solar SystemThis artist's conception compares a hypothetical solar system centered around a tiny "sun" (top) to a known solar sys... view image |
ssc2005-21a 10.20.05 Planet Clumps and Crystals Around Brown DwarfsThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the spectra (middle four lines) of dusty disks around fo... view image |
ssc2005-21b 10.20.05 Sowing the Seeds of Planets?This artist's concept shows microscopic crystals in the dusty disk surrounding a brown dwarf, or "failed star." The c... view image |
sig05-012 09.12.05 Planets May Leave Tracks in DustAstronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have gathered the most detailed data yet on a gap in a protoplanetar... view image |
sig05-009 07.18.05 Disk Around Red Dwarf Stars in the Stephenson 34 SystemAstronomers were surprised to discover a 25-million-year-old protoplanetary disk around a pair of red dwarf stars 350... view image |
ssc2005-10a 04.20.05 Super-Comet or Big Asteroid BeltThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope demonstrates that the dust around a nearby star called HD 6983... view image |
ssc2005-09b 03.22.05 Blinded by the LightThis artist's concept shows what a fiery hot star and its close-knit planetary companion might look close up if viewe... view image |
ssc2005-09a 03.22.05 The Language of Planetary LightThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space telescope shows changes in the infrared light output of two star-planet ... view image |
ssc2005-06c 02.07.05 'Mini-Me' Solar SystemThis artist's conception shows the relative size of a hypothetical brown dwarf-planetary system (below) compared to o... view image |
ssc2005-06b 02.07.05 Mini Solar System in the MakingA brown dwarf surrounded by a swirling disk of planet-building dust. The brown dwarf, called OTS 44, is only 15 times... view image |
ssc2004-22e 12.09.04 The View from Within AU Microscopii's DiskThis is an artist's impression of the view from the vicinity of a hypothetical terrestrial planet and moon orbiting t... view image |
ssc2004-22b 12.09.04 Planets Point to DustThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope indicates that stars with known planets (blue) are more likely... view image |
ssc2004-22f 12.09.04 Model of AU Microscopii DiskThis is a so-called scatter model based on the Hubble Space Telescope image of the planetary debris encircling the st... view image |
ssc2004-22a 12.09.04 A Distant Solar SystemThis artist's concept depicts a distant hypothetical solar system, similar in age to our own. Looking inward from the... view image |
ssc2004-20c 11.09.04 Spitzer Spectrum of Ices in a Protoplanetary DiscAstronomers have made the first clear detection of a variety of ices -- water, ammonium, and carbon dioxide -- in the... view image |
ssc2004-20d 11.09.04 Observing Young Stars: Hitting the 'Sweet Spot'What does an extremely young planetary system look like? The answer depends on your point of view. This diagram shows... view image |
ssc2004-17a2 10.18.04 The Rocky World of Young Planetary SystemsThis artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New fin... view image |
ssc2004-17a1 10.18.04 The Rocky World of Young Planetary SystemsThis artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New fin... view image |
ssc2004-17a 10.18.04 The Rocky World of Young Planetary Systems (Annotated)This artist's concept illustrates how planetary systems arise out of massive collisions between rocky bodies. New fin... view image |
ssc2004-17b 10.18.04 Spitzer Detects Surprisingly Large Rings of DustThis graph shows the extent of planetary debris discs around nearby stars of various ages, as measured by NASA's Spit... view image |
ssc2005-06a 07.02.04 Planetary Building Blocks Found in Surprising PlaceThis graph of data from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows that an extraordinarily low-mass brown dwarf, or "failed... view image |
ssc2004-08d 05.27.04 Out of the Dust, A Planet is BornA possible newfound planet spins through a clearing in a nearby star's dusty, planet-forming disk. The possible plane... view image |
ssc2004-08c 05.27.04 Spectra Show Protoplanetary Disk StructuresHow can you tell if a star has a protoplanetary disk around it, when the disk is too small to image directly? Using t... view image |
ssc2004-08b 05.27.04 Spitzer Spectra of Protoplanetary DisksUsing sensitive instruments onboard NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, scientists have seen the first building blocks of... view image |
ssc2004-05d 03.15.04 Orbit ComparisonsThese four panels show the location of the newly discovered planet-like object, dubbed "Sedna," which lies in the far... view image |
ssc2003-06g 12.18.03 Embedded Outflow in HH 46/47NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has lifted the cosmic veil to see an otherwise hidden newborn star, while detecting th... view image |
sig00_YSO_outflow 01.01.03 Jets of Outflowing Gas Burst from a Forming StarJets of outflowing gas burst from a forming star still accumulating material from the surrounding disk. view image |
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